“On the surface, it’s a sweet, simple story about a mermaid. She needs to find her gemstone so that she can access her mermaid powers,” Howell-based author Denise Brennan-Nelson said about her latest children’s book.

However, well-crafted stories dive deeper into other levels of subtext. Brennan-Nelson accomplishes that in “Tallulah: Mermaid of the Great Lakes,” which was published this year by Sleeping Bear Press and illustrated by Susan Kathleen Hartung of Brooklyn in Jackson County.

“The deeper meaning in the story is that Tallulah is a gem,” and she does not have to look outside herself to find her true power, Brennan-Nelson said. “As soon as she stops looking is when she finds it. That’s when her inner beauty comes out.”

In the story, Tallulah the mermaid starts out as a bit of an outcast. All of the other mermaids glimmer in the sunlight, their tails bedazzled in the colors of the ocean. However, Tallulah’s tail is dull and gray. She is a bit of an ugly duckling.

“They don’t think she has what it takes,” the author said.

That is where the mermaid tale takes an unexpected turn. Tallulah embarks on an adventurous journey from the ocean to the fresh waters of the Great Lakes with her friend Turtle.

“A friend of mine once said that the Great Lakes needed a mermaid. That’s how ideas start sometimes, with a single thought, a discussion,” the author said.

Brennan-Nelson, who visits schools to speak with kids about the writing process, tells kids that “when you keep your imagination open, ideas come from everywhere.”

“If the seas and the oceans have mermaids, then why not the Great Lakes?” Brennan-Nelson asked.

Brennan-Nelson researched the sites and features of Michigan’s Great Lakes to create the story, in which Tallulah travels between the lakes getting into adventures. She agreed that the book is a love letter to the four-of-five Great Lakes that border Michigan.

“I spent a week in Siesta Key (Florida), but Holland State Park beach in Michigan is one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. Lakes are different from oceans and seas, but they are beautiful. As an author, I want to promote that,” she said. “You can travel far away to great places, but never forget the beauty that is in our backyard.”

Spoiler alert: Tallulah finds her special mermaid-power gemstone in the Great Lakes. Here is a hint: It is a stone that can seem a little dull and gray at first. When put in water or polished, it becomes fantastic.

Another lesson hidden under the waves is “just let kids be themselves,” because “that’s when they find their own ways,” Brennan-Nelson said. She said some people put too much pressure on their kids to be a million things these days.

“It’s like when she is watching the sunset with Turtle. She had forgotten how much fun it is to be a mermaid,” she noted.